Stalled ERP at Random Textiles.

In September of 2014, Andre Raymond, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, stood in front of the podium to address his team of 70 sales consultants at Random Textiles Co. Inc. (RTC) in Las Vegas, NV. The organization had increased market share and achieved record sales over the past three years; however, in the shadow of this success appeared an obstacle that threatened the financial stability of the company. The enterprise resource planning (ERP) software system RTC planned to use for future growth had not been implemented yet. The new ERP software was introduced in 1996 and RTC had planned to roll it out company wide by 2004. Ten years later, no companywide rollout had taken place. The consequences of this problem were beginning to surface in the form of customer complaints due to unexpected stock outs, inefficient business processes, and high employee turnover. The learning objectives for this case include: recognizing and mitigating problems with IT management in general and IT project management specifically, the importance of evaluating vendors, the importance of IT planning and estimating time and resources required. This case is intended for the undergraduate IT Strategy (IS2010.7) or Foundation (IS2010.1) courses. It could also be used in the IS Project Management (IS2010.4) or an MBA course focused on IT strategy or management.